fred

Actually, the research was done under a grant from a cell phone company. I'm afraid it does indeed echo. Since the debunking has already started: "The pores in Latex are many times larger than the HIV virus." This one is absolutely true. Find a substance that doesn't leave pores large enough for a virus and I'll show you a block of lead (or any other crystaline substance, actually.). If you think a condom prevents aids, you're wrong. If you think it greatly reduces your odds of contracting HIV, you're right. And one of the inequities of life: girls, you're much more likely to contract it than boys are. Sorry. "If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes." This is unfortunately not true. Whether the horse raises a leg or two is completely up to the sculptor, and has nothing to do with how the rider perished. There is some correlation (that is, the majority of sculptures that have both legs in the air died in battle), but it is a simple majority. It is not a fact. "3-Urine is sterile-So a PA is the best pericing to get b/c it has the least chance of infection." "What if I pee all over your other piercings then?" Well, point 3 was correct. There are a lot of uglies down there, but very few of them can survive urea. So peeing on other piercings does, in fact, decrease the odds of infection. This is also why peeing on athletes foot has a therapeutic effect. (although other antibacterial agents are more effective)

I have a new cousin! Darcy Jordan Roper, born at 10:10 yesterday. I think it's pretty cool.

Just a few things to point out, courtesy of snopes: Snopes: This is one of those coincidences that isn't a coincidence at all -- it's simply wrong. John Kennedy did have a secretary named Evelyn Lincoln (who may or may not have warned him about going to Dallas), but one searches in vain to find a Lincoln secretary named Kennedy. (Lincoln's White House secretaries were John G. Nicolay and John Hay.) Snopes: Another coincidence that is no coincidence because it's plain wrong: Booth was born in 1838, not 1839. Snopes: This is a latter-day addition to the list and nothing more than a bit of salacious humor. Even as a humorous coincidence it fails the test, as Marilyn Monroe died well over a year before Kennedy's assassination. Sorry to spoil the fun. Read the article linked to above for more problems with the "coincidences".

Or try the manufacturer at demotivators.com.

From what I've gathered, if you have to ask if it's beerable, then it's beerable.

I think they call it a "poised" exit? But that could be wrong. Please correct me. It's a C-182, and I climb out onto the wing strut where there are two hand grips. I grab the grips, then step off (I'm still confused as to how this happens. I step off casually onto nothingness. It's very weird in my mind. Probably more of the lack of awareness of my legs, but I just do it.) So I'm grabbing these two grips, look over to the door and get the 'go' order. I look up at the wing, and release. I (hopefully) watch the plane fall away. I don't think I'm particularly stressed, though, as I think I mentioned, I'm told that I look terrified. I know that the worst thing that's going to happen to me is some (severe) bruises. My fear is very slight at this point. I haven't heard the 'point your toes' thing. I'll try to remember that, since it should help with my leg awareness. When I leave the plane, I'm initially in a good arch. In my earlier jumps, I was told that I held it pretty good for the first couple seconds, but it fell away (or, that is, I flattened out a bit). On my 15's, I consciously pushed my hips forward, but it didn't help. Then again, time seems to travel so quickly that I think I try 101 corrections before the first one could possibly take effect.

Thanks for all the wonderful advice and sympathy. It's amazing how much I didn't say that you addressed. I'm still frustrated, but there's no way I'm quitting. I am going to take a break. I'm at least not jumping this week, though I might be talked into it this weekend. I'm planning on just taking a vacation next weekend. Lord knows I need to relax in my real life, not just in my arch. Maybe it'll help, but maybe not. I'm a bit concerned over a bruise on my right leg that is, well, worse than normal (I do bruise easily, but this is bigger than my stretched out hand). I know my leg straps were tight when I climbed out onto the wing, but they didn't feel like they were while under canopy. That's really beside the point, though. Just one more reason to take a breather: so I have time to heal. To address certain points. I understand that relaxation is the key. I think that's why my cloud-gazing 10-second jump went so well. I just didn't care about anything else I had to do, and just wanted to keep staring out there. If only I could summon clouds at a distance at will. There's all sorts of things mentioned that I have done at one point or another. I have very little awareness of my legs when I'm up there, and on one jump, I had to (visualize) slapping myself on the wrist because I was kicking my legs. ("What the &%*# are you kicking for, you idiot?") And I do need to look at the positive side. Like Michele, I'm afraid of heights. While I can convince myself to go up into a tall building, I can't approach the windows. I was scared to death of the plane and the ride to altitude. And the door, omigod, that damn door. Does it really have to open so fast? But I've overcome most of that. I'm now comfortable spotting (even had (got?) to give a correction once). I get up on my knees and lean way out of that plane with very little to hold onto. (Though, my I still hold my breath when the pilot does sharp turns with the door open. We were way off heading once and that, uh... scared me.) I'm fine with climbing out, even if I'm a bit clumsy at times. And I can't stand it when the radio guy forgets and tells me to flare. He always has me do it too early (Whereas I do it too late, but still, I've landed on me feet and run it out every time I've flared on my own). I can guide myself into a landing and come pretty close to the target, though the time I hit the peas I had a lot of 'suggestions' from the radio guy. So I'm feeling good about all that. I'm told that I look terrified on exit, so i'm going to stop a second and try to remember to smile before I let go next time. I don't pretend to understand it, but I do believe that a smile can spread to the rest of your body. Oh, and "using your brain too much"? That's so me. I'm generally intelligent (read: book smart, not common sense), so I've got all these little tidbits of information stuck in my head. I've been reading the SIM, and every safety article posted on this site and others. (It puts the DZO off a little, when he starts explaining things. Him: "Well, the high performance canopies are made out of a material that doesn't let any air escape." Me: "Yes, zero-porosity. What does it do?" Him (still trying to answer the original question): "The student canopies are more forgiving, because they're made out of different type." Me: "Oh, F111?" He does not look amused.) But knowing all this stuff does nothing for me in the air, so I'm probably very guilty of the "heads-up-ass" syndrom, as it was so poignantly described. Why couldn't they just give me a written? Anyway, I've jabbered on for enough. Thanks again for the advice and sympathy. Please keep 'em coming.

Some background for those who don't know it. I'm on a static line course at Great Lakes Skydivers in Gobles, Michigan. It's been a blast, and I'm determined to stay with it. But I am getting frustrated. I know I'm uncoordinated. I'm not athletic, and really have no sense of my own body position. I'm clumsy (Hell, I walk into walls while I'm sober!). This doesn't serve as a good base to learn skydiving. I certainly didn't expect to cruise through the program; I knew I'd have hang-ups. But I expected that I'd eventually get the hang of it. So after my 5 static lines (including 3 flawless practice pulls), I did my first 5-second freefall, and I fell even more in love with this activity. Those couple extra seconds were amazing, but I probably don't need to tell y'all that. Then my 10 seconds came. On my first 10 second fall, I chipped and dolphed (sp? I haven't actually read this term on dz.com, but it's like chipping, but head-to-tow instead of side to side), and did some (unintentional) slight turns. When I got down to the ground, I got loads of advice ("After the first few seconds, bend your knees a bit", "After the first few seconds, bring your arms down a bit", "Arch Hard!", "Relax!"). When I went up for my second 10 second fall, I did all of the above (well, okay, except relaxing... that's hard to do). It didn't go well. I wobbled, started bending my knees, brought my arms in, and ... well ... had a really hard opening. The saddest part about that jump is, while I was falling trying to find this damn position where I'd fall stable, while realizing that I was trying every snippet of advice I'd heard, I completely forgot to count. Realizing that I wasn't counting and had no idea what altitude I was at, I pulled. JM told me he had counted to 4. :( Okay... wait a few days, and jump again. Third attempt at my first 10 second didn't go well, but went better than my first two. I chipped a little, and was in a slight spin (about 90 degrees during my 10 seconds). The JM went ahead and passed me for my second 10. And the second 10 was beautiful. I let go of the wing, watched it fall away and as my belly went down, I saw the clouds. Out a ways from the DZ, some really low clouds were rolling in. The DZO says they were about 700ft up. I just stared overtop of them. I wasn't turning, wasn't wobbling, and ... well... I wish I knew what I had done. It was such a beautiful sight. If only I knew what I'd done. Well, I know what I did, I just didn't want (refused to?) lose the moment. Unfortunately, I have no idea what my body was doing. I think that this jump was the one and only time that all my rehearsals on the ground and that "muscle memory" came into play. Unfortunately, without having that horizon of clouds, I can't recreate it. See, after that jump, I moved on to my 15s. This past tuesday, I did my first. I was chipping and turning the whole way down, and couldn't stop it. I just could not recreate that smooth freefall that I'd experienced. Fail the jump, and have to repeat it. No biggie at that point. I went ahead and manifested for my second. That one went surprisingly well. I let go of the plane, started a slight turn to the left and stopped it (somehow). At about 10 seconds, I remember the other thing I was told to practice, which is glancing at the altimeter. I did, and everything went to shit. I'm sure that I brought my arm forward when I looked (which I know is very wrong), but my whole body dove to the left and I started into a spin. I tried to stop it, but failed. I resumed chipping, dolphing, and spinning, until pulltime came. I'm told that I would have passed the jump if it weren't for the mishap at the end. So today I woke up early, prepared to get 3-4 jumps in at the DZ (I did some financial finagling to make that happen). I took my third first attempt at a 15 second delay, wobbled and turned. On my second jump today, I wobbled more and entered into a pretty fast spin. I've now got a bruise on my thigh that is bigger than my head. My biceps are bruised pretty badly, and I've got big bruises on my forearms (!). I had line twists all the way down the risers that were continuing to get worse when I was under full canopy (push risers, kick kick kick). On the positive side, I'm pretty comfortable spotting the plane, and can guide myself pretty close the peas with minimal assistance (though I think I'm flairing a bit late and a bit slowly, I'm still able to run 'em out). So the under-canopy thing is progressing fine, but my freefall is just sucking. I look good on paper. I can arch on the ground, both standing and on my belly, and people say it's a great arch. But in the air, I just lose it, or it's just not working like it's supposed to (Perhaps I'm subject to a unique set of physical laws?). So I guess what I'm looking for is any input you could have. Feed me lots of advice on arching, specifically good ways of practicing an arch on the ground. Talk to me about turning/stopping turns, since the instruction I've received is basically "Here's a good start. Nobody really knows how they do it, but you'll figure it out." And mainly, I want to hear from others who've had problems learning. I can't be alone. So tell me when you got frustrated as a student. I don't want to give this up, but right now I'm feeling like maybe I'm not cut out for anything more than hop&pops. Which is fun, but I'm really looking forward to all the other wonderful things that freefall has to offer.

I really wish I could help. I'm another new jumper, and have all sorts of stability and spinning problems. I've received lots and lots of advice, but the consensus seems to boil down to two things: (1) Relax, and (2) it will eventually just click. And I guess I'd add (3) these things are likely to happen at the same time.

Boring? Sounds a whole lot like my dreams.

I have a bunch of stories up on my website about my first few jumps that I'd be happy to have reprinted. Sure, all of 20 people have already read it, so it's not fresh material. But just ask, and I'll provide the copy.

I sure hope you're talking about skies, Michelle.

I'll hopefully be spending my past-due car payment on jumps... It's all good, right?

Maybe you should just BASE jump off the stratosphere?

Has your wife seen a C-182? Good lord. I think jumping out of that plane is the preferred way down. Pretty exciting though. For me, that door opening was the scariest part of my first jump. She'll have fun, though.

That's so funny. I'm going to have to use that tonight.

You might want to try adding a doctype tag... seems like the non-IE browsers think you're sending us plaintext... Before the "" tag, try adding this line: It's a pretty strange error, but it also happens on all my linux browsers, so IE is the one behaving strangely here by showing the page. Who's hosting the site? There could also be a server configuration error. I'm in over my head here, though.

This is a wonderful example, DBone. Having a higher resolution will let you crop out the 'good parts' without sacrificing image quality. (This is, in fact, what the "digital zoom" I tried to warn you about does, it just does it while you take the picture, instead of requiring photoshop afterward). So, even if your optical zoom is lacking, more megapixels means a better picture. Pammi, I'll try to remember to take my camera to the DZ tomorrow (woo-hoo! 15 seconds!), and I can give you some examples of my measly 1.3 megapixel 3X Optical so you get some examples of that. If there's anything in particular you want me to try, post it here or mail me at [email protected] I'm pushing my camera (Olympus D-360) because it was low-cost ($299 when I bought it), and good quality. I really feel I got the best bang for my buck. Mine's about 9 months old now, so you'll get a lot more for the same money now.

Wasn't skysurfing an event a few years back? I seem to remember two-person teams (cameraman and surfer). Judges watched on television sets, scoring based on tricks, difficulty, and presentation. Maybe this wasn't the X-Games, though. I really thought it was.

I'm crossin' my finners for good weather tomorrow morning... We have storms coming in, but it looks like they'll be late afternoon... If so, I'll get my 15 seconds in...

Yes... optical and analog zoom are the same. I probably used the wrong term. Ideally, you'd get a camera that will take standard lenses. in my experience, however, this runs about $500 more than getting a good digital camera with its own zoom. It really depends how far you want to take it. I'm certainly not a photographer, and I know little about it. I agree... You don't need more than 1 megapixel (well, you want 1.3 Megapixels), but it's hard to find cameras under that. You want something that takes some sort of memory card, not floppies... And those cameras that take digital and regular pictures? You want to avoid those like the plague.

I'll guess Michele... It certainly sounds nice to me... ;)

The zoom is going to be your biggest hurdle. Most reasonably priced digital camera's don't have more than a 3x-6x zoom (and when you go shopping, remember you're worried about the analog zoom. Digital zoom just cuts the picture size down, which you can do in photoshop anyway.). I'm very fond of my Olympus D-360. It's not the easiest digital camera to use, but the photo quality is astounding. I've got an 8MB card and can hold about 32 high res (1280x1024) pictures. The memory cards come as high as 64MB, and are easy to swap in and out. The bigger concern would be batteries. Make sure you get lots of rechargables if you're going to be away for awhile. Digital cameras eat them up. And I'm amazed at how well the macro setting works. I can easily take a picture of a quarter and have it fill up the entire frame without getting blurry. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a digital camera without an LCD screen. Hope that helps...

I know my deployment altitude. I'm still learning to look at the alti, though. That's what I have to focus on during my first 15 sec. Then they add turns to the second one.

"1. A high degree of thrill seeking and novelty seeking (duh)." Yeah, this is kinda circular and obvious. Basically says, "Thrill seekers seek thrills." "2. They tend to be disorganized or disorderly." Well, this is me. You should see the state of my apartment right now. I've climbed to a whole new level of 'disorganized'. "3. They tend to be very sociable, gregarious individuals." Well, I'm shy and slightly agorophobic. So this doesn't fit me at all. It does seem to describe most people at my DZ, though. "4. They're above average in abstract ability and intelligence." As flattering as this is, I don't think that it's generally true. The thrill seekers I know come in all colors of the intelligence spectrum. We have yokels and scientists jumping at my DZ. Most seem to be of average intelligence. "5. They're very persistent. When they make up their mind to do something, come heaven, hell or high water they do it." Again, this is not me at all. When I make up my mind to do something, it's guaranteed that I'll start it. I'm not so good at following through, though. "6. They are often very unexcited about life. The only time they really come alive is during the thrill seeking activity." This to me seems self-evident. If we were excited about life, we wouldn't need the thrills. "7. They're natural born "rule breakers". If you tell a thrill seeker that they can't do this or can't do that, they just view it as a challenge or as another rule to be broken." And this is not me at all. I'm very lawful by nature, and I tend to think that rules should be obeyed simply because they're there (unless they are obviously immoral or stupid). So 4 out of 7 for me, I guess.